Intel Introduces The Smallest, Most Advanced Process Technology in the Semiconductor Industry

Intel with collaboration with Micron Technology, Inc introduced the world’s First 25nm NAND Technology Provides Cost-Effective Path for More Data, Photos, Songs in Today’s Popular Consumer Electronic and Computing Devices.

This is the press Release By Intel

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and BOISE, Idaho, Feb. 1, 2010 – Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. today announced the world’s first 25-nanometer (nm) NAND technology, which provides a more cost-effective path for increasing storage capacity in such popular consumer gadgets as smartphones, personal music and media players (PMPs), as well as the new high-performance class of solid-state drives (SSDs).

NAND flash memory stores data and other media contained in consumer electronics products, retaining information even when the power is turned off. The drive toward smaller NAND processes enables the continued development and introduction of new uses for the technology. Not only is the 25nm process the smallest NAND technology, it is also the smallest semiconductor technology in the world – a technological accomplishment that continues the advancement of more music, video, and other data in today’s consumer electronics and computing applications.

Manufactured by IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), Intel and Micron’s NAND flash joint venture, the 25nm process produces 8 gigabytes (GB) of storage in a single NAND device, creating a high-capacity storage solution for today’s tiny consumer gadgets. It measures just 167mm2 — small enough to fit through the hole in the middle of a compact disc (CD), yet packs more than 10 times the data capacity of that CD (a standard CD holds 700 megabytes of data).

With a committed focus and investment in NAND research and development, Intel and Micron have doubled NAND density roughly every 18 months, which leads to smaller, more cost-efficient and higher capacity products. Intel and Micron formed IMFT in 2006, starting production with a 50nm process, followed by a 34nm process in 2008. With today’s 25nm process, the companies are extending their process and fabrication leadership further with the introduction of the smallest semiconductor lithography available in the industry.

“To lead the entire semiconductor industry with the most advanced process technology is a phenomenal feat for Intel and Micron, and we look forward to further pushing the scaling limits,” said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron’s memory group. “This production technology will enable significant benefits to our customers through higher density media solutions.”

“Through our continued investment in IMFT, we’re delivering leadership technology and manufacturing that enable the most cost-effective and reliable NAND memory,” said Tom Rampone, vice president and general manager, Intel NAND Solutions Group. “This will help speed the adoption of solid-state drive solutions for computing.”

The 25nm, 8GB device is sampling now and is expected to enter mass production in the second quarter of 2010. For consumer electronics manufacturers, the device provides the highest-density in a single 2 bits-per-cell multi-level cell (MLC) die that will fit an industry-standard, thin small-outline package (TSOP). Multiple 8GB devices can be stacked in a package to increase storage capacity. The new 25nm 8GB device reduces chip count by 50 percent compared to previous process generations, allowing for smaller, yet higher density designs and greater cost efficiencies. For example, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) can now be enabled with just 32 of these devices (versus 64 previously), a 32GB smartphone needs just four, and a 16GB flash card requires only two.

Source - Intel

Apple Unveils The New Apply iPad

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, Unveils the New Apple Tablet or Apple Ipad to millions of people who have been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Steve said “this is truly a magical product”, the device could browse the Web, let users send e-mail, share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games and read e-Books.

Much like an iPhone, the iPad has a touch screen that zooms in and out of Web sites and a virtual keyboard. It also orients to portrait or landscape viewing, depending on how you hold it.

Jobs said it will be half-an-inch thick and weigh in at 1.5 pounds. It will have a 9.7-inch display and include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. ABC News.

The iPad specifications:

• 1GHz Apple A4 processor (custom)
• 0.5″ thick
• 1.5 pounds
• 9.7″ Capacitive touchscreen
• 16-64GB of SSD storage
• 3G available but not in all iPads
• $14.99 for 250MB, $29.99 for unlimited data on AT&T (no contract)
• 3G iPads are unlocked, have GSM micro SIMs
• Accelerometer, Compass
• 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1
• Runs iPhone apps in window or pixel doubling
• Hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics
• SDK out today
• $499 for 16GB base model, $830 for all maxed out

iPad limitations:

• 64GB only. What if you have lots of videos and music?
• No Video chat because there is no camera.

This the first video released on Youtube showing the Apple iPad.

Via – Crunchgear – ABC news

The Main Causes Of World War II

Through human civilization, wars have been a constant part of human history. It has greatly affected the lives of people around the world. People suffered, others were killed and others lost their loved ones. Fifty years since the Second World War’s end, its causes continue to fascinate scholars and the general reader alike; there is no end in sight to the various controversial that surround the events of the 1930s. But after the end of the Second World War there was a deep conviction and almost universal hope that peace would come to the world and peace would spread around the countries. The phrase “the war to end all wars” was on every lip, and measures had been taken to turn into reality. But unfortunately, the Second World War was among the most destructive conflicts in human history, more than forty-six million soldiers and civilians were killed, many in circumstances of prolonged and horrifying cruelty. 2,174 days of destructions and constant combats, tarring down what generations for hundreds of years have built, there is no one single reason that started the Second World War, the causes are many and some are complex. But we can say that the main cause of the war was to clean up what left from World War one.

Germany was defeated in World War I, but they suffered less than the other France and Italy Germany’s victorious allies. But the army for sure had suffered terrible losses, then the Versailles treaty came about to end the war. The Treaty of Versailles was the peace agreement that ended World War I, Germany signed a peace treaty which I think was one of the causes of the Second World War because the treaty blamed Germany for the First World War. The United States played an important role in establishing what’s called the League of Nations to guarantee world peace and the political and territorial integrity of states. Woodrow Wilson suggested a treaty based on his own 14-point plan which e believed would bring peace to Europe. George’s Clemenceau wanted revenge; his goal was to be sure that Germany could never start another war again. As a result of Versailles meeting, the countries asked Germany for few things, they asked for 6,600 million for the damage caused by the war, and to return land that was taken away from by the Germans.

In order to keep Germany weak all the time and make sure they will not have the power again to begin another war, the treaty limited the German army to a mere 1000,000 men, of which only 4,000 were to be officers. Heavy weapons, aircraft included, were prohibited. But that treaty was weak and didn’t focus on creating world peace than it was with punishing Germany weakening its economy as well as its military. At this time the world including the United States was suffering from a worldwide economical depression, Germany had about 25% un-employments and their economy was going down. The Germans of course were unhappy and angry about the treaty and they thought that these regulations are unfair and harsh. The league unfortunately has failed for several reasons, one because not all the countries joined, second because The League had no power, had no army and finally the league un-ability to act quickly.

With the Versailles treaty and the depression, Adolf Hitler rose to power. Hitler become a very active politician, he became increasingly active in popular politics, which played on fear of communism and hatred of Jews. Hitler was able to rescue the German economy from the depression; within only one year he was able to accomplish decrease the people suffer and re-established his country. He also started secretly to re-arm the military preparing for his plan of wide invasions. He increased the size of the army, and began building warship and created German air force. The military established what’s called “Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), which combined tactics and weapons designed to be brought to bear against an enemy with overwhelming force and speed, quickly penetrating its frontline defenses while encircling and destroying it.

Hitler also made two important alliances during 1936. The first was called the Rome-Berlin Axis Pact and allied Hitler’s Germany with Mussolini’s Italy. The second was called the Anti-Comintern Pact and allied Germany with Japan. Moreover, the three allies Germany, Japan and Italy adopted forms of dictatorship and they called for expansion at the expense of neighboring countries. Another cause of the Second World War is the rise of two powerful countries Germany and Japan and the decline of other countries like Britain. The rise of German and Japanese power began almost simultaneously in the nineteenth century. The years 1866 to 1871 witnessed two revolutions, one in Europe and the other in Asia, which not only transformed the countries in which they took place, but were also to revolutionize the international system.

After World War I, communism was spreading in the country, and they were aiming to hold power and establish the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The Soviet Union was beside the communist and they were close alliance. For this reason the anti-communism was established who fought against the growing popularity of the communist movement. Fascism and Nazism were based on a violent brand of anti-communism, they incited fear of the communist revolution in order to gain political power, and they aimed to destroy communisms in World War II. The communist movement helped Hitler in one way to develop his army and to get support from great nations. When Germany began re-arming in 1934, many politicians felt that Germany had a right to re-arm in order to protect herself. It was also argued that a stronger Germany would prevent the spread of Communism to the west.

Expansionism is also a one of the main causes of World War II, countries wanted to expand their territories and spread their power and dominancy in neighborhood areas. For example, Italy sought to create a new Roman Empire based around the Mediterranean and invaded Albania in the early 1939, and later Greece. The result of this loss of land was population relocation, bitterness among Germans, and also difficult relations with those in these neighboring countries, contributing to feelings of revanchism which inspired irredentism. Under the Nazi regime, Germany began its own program of expansion, seeking to restore the “rightful” boundaries of pre-World War I.

The global economic downturn of the 1930s bred significant political and social changes in many nations, but those that took place in Europe and the Far East were particularly important. These political and economic aftershocks positioned the world onto the path that would eventually lead to World War II. In Japan the Depression caused a dramatic drop in its trade-based economy and an accompanying disillusionment with democracy. “Too many Japanese,” explains Robert Leckie in Delivered from Evil, “the answer to the loss of markets through trade barriers was to resume their discarded policy of colonial expansion. Japan should win for itself the sources of raw material and the markets required to make it self-sufficient and invulnerable as a world power.”

Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy in the 1930s, also fostered aggression against another nation to fuel his country’s economy and growth. In 1935 Italy invaded and assumed control of the independent African nation of Ethiopia over the objections of the League of Nations, which by this time was perceived as a largely ineffectual organization.

In the fall of 1938 Hitler abruptly called for a conference of leading European nations to discuss the Sudetenland situation (representation by the Czechoslovakian government was conspicuously absent). The resulting agreement, known as the Munich Pact, called for the Sudetenland to be turned over to Germany. Abandoned by its allies, Czechoslovakia was forced to comply, but the loss of the region broke down part of its economic, social, and communications networks. The political leaders of England and France had been determined to avoid war. Their decision to capitulate to Germany’s demands in the hopes of securing peace came to be known as appeasement. In the days immediately following the signing of the Munich Pact, many Europeans hailed the pact as a milestone in peacekeeping, for Hitler had promised that the Sudetenland was the last territorial claim that Germany would make. Upon returning home from Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain even announced to enthusiastic crowds that the pact ensured “peace in our time.” Indeed, the agreement reached at Munich actually served to encourage Germany’s thirst for expansion.

But in England and France, most people chose to believe that the mounting tension in Europe had been relieved. Only isolated voices spoke out against the appeasement policy: one of these was a British politician named Winston Churchill, who had been alarmed by the rise of Nazism in Germany during the course of the decade. Upon learning of the Munich Pact, Churchill was crestfallen. “We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat,” he said in a speech in the House of Commons. “We are in the midst of a disaster of the first magnitude. . . . Do not suppose that this is the end. It is only the beginning.”

Rise of Fascism and the Nazi Party was also a reason for the Second World War. In 1922, Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party rose to power in Italy. Believing in a strong central government and strict control of industry and the people, Fascism was a reaction to the perceived failure of free market economics and a deep fear of communism. Highly militaristic, Fascism also was driven by a sense of belligerent nationalism that encouraged conflict as a means of social improvement. By 1935, Mussolini was able to make himself the dictator of Italy and transformed the country into a police state.

To the north in Germany, Fascism was embraced by the National Socialist German Workers Party, also known as the Nazis. Swiftly rising to power in the late 1920s, the Nazis and their charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler, followed the central tenets of Fascism while also advocating for the racial purity of the German people and additional German Lebensraum (living space). Playing on the economic distress in Weimar Germany and backed by their “Brown Shirts” militia, the Nazis became a political force. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was placed in position to take power when he was appointed Reich Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg.

A month after Hitler assumed the Chancellorship, the Reichstag building burned. Blaming the fire on the Communist Party of Germany, Hitler used the incident as an excuse to ban those political parties that opposed Nazi policies. On March 23, 1933, the Nazis essentially took control of the government by passing the Enabling Acts. Meant to be an emergency measure, the acts gave the cabinet (and Hitler) the power to pass legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. Hitler next moved to consolidate his power and executed a purge of the party (The Night of the Long Knives) to eliminate those who could threaten his position. With his internal foes in check, Hitler began the persecution of those who were deemed racial enemies of the state. In September 1935, he passed the Nuremburg Laws which stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade marriage or sexual relations between a Jew and an “Aryan.” Three years later the first pogrom began (Night of Broken Glass) in which over one hundred Jews were killed and 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Many countries in Europe and Asia were competing for natural resources to improve their economy, Japan for example lacks of natural resource and the only Asian country with a burgeoning industrial economy at that time, feared that a lack of new material might hinder its ability to fight a total war against a reinvigorated Soviet Union. For this reason, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. The United States used to supply Japan with almost 80% oil import. Moreover, Japan was seeking alternative areas rich of oil such as the Dutch East Indies, which lead to a conflict with the United States who cut the oil supply on Japan. Now Japan has to find a different source of oil to supply their economy and military, one way to accomplish that is by negotiation with the United States, or to go to war over resources, Japan chose the last option. The Japanese Navy attacked the U.S Navy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Since World War I, tensions had existed between Germany and Poland regarding the free city of Danzig and the “Polish Corridor.” The latter was a narrow strip of land reaching north to Danzig which provided Poland with access to the sea and separated the province of East Prussia from the rest of Germany. In an effort to resolve these issues and gain Lebensraum for the German people, Hitler began planning the invasion of Poland. Formed after World War I, Poland’s army was relatively weak and ill-equipped compared to Germany. To aid in its defense, Poland had formed military alliances with Great Britain and France.
Massing their armies along the Polish border, the Germans staged a fake Polish attack on August 31, 1939. Using this as a pretext for war, German forces flooded across the border the next day. On September 3, Great Britain and France issued an ultimatum to Germany to end the fighting. When no reply was received, both nations declared war.

In Poland, German troops executed a blitzkrieg (lightning war) assault using combining armor and mechanized infantry. This was supported from above by the Luftwaffe, which had gained experience fighting with the fascist Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Poles attempted to counterattack but were defeated at the Battle of Bzura (Sept. 9-19). As the fighting was ending at Bzura, the Soviets, acting on the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, invaded from the east. Under assault from two directions, the Polish defenses crumbled with only isolated cities and areas offering prolonged resistance. By October 1, the country had been completely overrun with some Polish units escaping to Hungary and Romania. During the campaign, Great Britain and France, who were both slow to mobilize, provided little support to their ally.
With the conquest of Poland, the Germans implemented Operation Tannenberg which called for the arrest, detainment, and execution of 61,000 Polish activists, former officers, actors, and intelligentsia. By the end of September, special units known as Einsatzgruppen had killed over 20,000 Poles. In the east, the Soviets also committed numerous atrocities, including the murder of prisoners of war, as they advanced. The following year, the Soviets executed between 15,000-22,000 Polish POWs and citizens in the Katyn Forest on Stalin’s orders.

The first victim of the second war two was an unknown prisoner in one of Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps, most probably a common criminal. In an attempt to make Germany seem the innocent victim of Polish aggression, he had been dressed in a Polish uniform, taken to the German frontier town of Gleiwitz, and shot on the evening of 31 august 1939 by the Gestapo in a bizarre faked Polish attack on the local radio station. On the following morning, as German troops began their advance into Poland, Hitler gave, as one of his reasons for the invasion, “the attack by regular Polish troops on the Gleiwitz transmitter.” On the other hand, the French army led by its minister André Maginot authorized construction of a great system of fortifications that would bear his name to defense the country from any future expected attacks.

To conclude,
It seems to me that there are some obvious causes of World War II, Hitler’s revenge for Germany’s defeat in World War I and the unfair treaty of Versailles. The treaty limited the German economic and military resource which I think made them even more angry and unhappy.

Intel’s Future PCs wake up when they get phone call

The component will turn and activate its microphone and speakers to alert the owner about the phone call, then it connect the call.  “This certainly helps the PC become a much better center of communications in the home,” said Trevor Healy, chief executive of Jajah, which will be the first Internet telephone company to utilize the feature.

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